This process is a zombie. It has died, but its parent is misbehaving. You can usually get rid of zombies by getting rid of the parent and then child.

Top won't tell you who the parent is. Run this command at the prompt:

ps -aux | grep apache

You also need to check the *.cgi scripts and disable them if they cause high load. On another note, you might have a system that is not optimized. It could also be a modules that is not compiled properly, or just not working properly I would start looking at the apache configuration and modules and ensure it's optimized.

Andy Reed
CCNA, RHCE, and Ubuntu TechnologistServerTune.com

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